


Keeping One's Promises

by afteriwake



Series: Where The Wild Ones Are [5]
Category: Sherlock (TV), St Trinian's (2007 2009)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-05-09
Packaged: 2017-12-10 22:15:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/790787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the talk between Annabelle and John's mother goes badly, Sherlock assumes Kelly will not keep up her end of the bargain they had struck the evening before. But Kelly surprises him, both with the fact she kept her promise and the candor with which she talks about her past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping One's Promises

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aaronlisa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronlisa/gifts).



> My good friend Aaronlisa helped me out with something so I promised her two stories in this series as repayment. I know I don't delve a lot into her history, but I hope you like this!

The conversation between Annabelle and John’s mother had not gone well. John had been there, at Annabelle’s request, and many of the things his mother had had to say had been tirades against Annabelle’s father, with a few barbs thrown at Annabelle and John and the fact John loved her more than the rest of his family. After a half hour of listening quietly he blew up at his mother and ushered Annabelle out of her home. So when everyone arrived for dinner that evening, the mood was not festive.

“I think she’s going to drink a lot tonight,” Kelly said quietly to Sherlock as they stood in the kitchen, watching Annabelle and John at the table. The two of them were talking quietly because Annabelle was crying and John was trying to comfort her, and neither wanted to interfere. “She doesn’t do it often, but when something particularly bad happens…” She let the thought trail off.

“Shouldn’t you be comforting her?” he asked, turning away from the scene and looking at her.

Kelly didn’t turn to face him. “No, this is a family matter. It’s best if he does it. I’ll do my own comforting tonight, if she still needs it.” She sighed. “I had hoped it would go better than it did.”

“I think John had as well.” He looked away from her. “I suppose you won’t be recounting your childhood tonight.”

“Probably not to them, but they already know it,” Kelly said with a shrug. “This is going to take a while. You and I can go elsewhere and talk.”

Sherlock was surprised. He had thought for sure she would renege on her promise; to know she was true to her word made him respect her more. “Do you want to stay here?”

Kelly shook her head before looking at him. “I think it’s best if we give them space. We can go get coffee, then get take-out to bring home.”

“Very well,” he said with a nod.

Kelly moved over to Annabelle and John, wrapping an arm around Annabelle’s shoulders and kissing the top of her head before informing John of the change in plans. John looked grateful and as soon as Kelly pulled away he went back to comforting Annabelle. Kelly got her coat, as did Sherlock, and the two of them left his home. “So, you’re the consulting detective,” she said once they got outside. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything you are willing to tell me, I suppose,” he said, pulling his coat closer around to protect him from the cold air.

“I was born here in London,” she replied. “Don’t know who my father is, and my mum only put up with me until I was six. I was a bit of a wild child, I suppose. Highly imaginative but prone to breaking the rules if it suited me. My mother couldn’t cope, so she fobbed me off on her brother and his wife. Then she disappeared. She’d always wanted to be an actress so I’d assumed she went to the States, to New York or Los Angeles.”

“Do you know what happened to her now?” he asked.

She nodded. “She shot herself with too much heroin ten years ago in some run-down apartment building in Riverside County, in California.” Then she smiled humorlessly. “Go to any store where they sell adult videos and you might find her on a cover. She made quite a name for herself in that industry.”

“That must have come as a shock,” Sherlock said, clearly surprised.

“Not really,” she said with a shrug, smile dropping off her face. “Some of my earliest memories are all the men that tramped through the place.” She was quiet for a moment as they walked. “My uncle and aunt were better, and honestly, they’re good people. But I was still a rule breaker, and with three kids of their own, one of whom has autism, they had their hands full. So when they heard about St. Trinian’s, off I went.”

“Didn’t the reputation of the school scare them?”

“No. Camilla came to them, talked about the school. She said it had an ‘alternate curriculum,’ and each girl was allowed to cultivate their own educational plan.” She smiled a warmer smile than before. “And then she talked to me. I liked her right from the start. For the first time in my life, I felt I had an ally. She told me she hoped to see me there at the start of term, and my head was filled with all these wonderful visions of what awaited. I practically begged my uncle to send me there. He obliged.”

“Was it what you hoped for?” he asked as they made their way to the coffee shop near the corner.

“Yes and no. It certainly had an alternate curriculum, though bless some of the teachers who tried. There weren’t a whole lot of formal studies there, and some of the girls were simply running wild. The Head Girl at the time took me in my first year, though. She was my idol.”

“What was her name?”

“We all called her Mols. She was a very bright girl. First Geek to make Head Girl in fifteen years. Had a passion for the sciences. Camilla had been paying a science teacher double to make sure she got proper education in that area, because she had dreams of doing something in the medical field.” She smiled wider now. “I wasn’t a geek. I wasn’t really in any of the groups we have there, and that’s what drew her to me. I was unique. She wanted to make sure I got through my first year unscathed, just like she was my big sister. I wouldn’t have made it through that year without her.”

“And when she left?”

“She kept in touch. As she was going through the rest of her schooling she would call me, come and visit. She was my mentor, I suppose. But soon I was becoming a mentor to other girls, and Camilla noticed. When Annabelle came, I was Head Girl.”

“I remember Annabelle said she was tormented,” Sherlock said.

“She was,” Kelly said with a nod. “At least, at first. I made sure nothing serious happened to her, though. The twins wanted to do much worse. But she proved herself. After that no one questioned her. She got everyone’s love and respect, just as I had.”

They got to the coffee shop, then went in and placed their orders. Once they had their drinks they went to go sit in a more secluded booth. “There is more I’d like to know, more particulars about your time at the school,” Sherlock said after taking a sip of his coffee. “I doubt there is a school in England like the one you attended.”

Kelly chuckled. “No, we have the reputation we have for a reason. We are unique in our ways, and not many people understand it.”

“Before I get back to your tenure there as a student, I do have a question for you.”

“All right,” she said with a nod, taking a sip of her own coffee.

“Why did you go back to help Annabelle? You had a successful career with the government, and you just walked away from it.”

“Because I’d been in love with her for a long while,” Kelly said with a smile. “I don’t know if you’ve figured it out by now, but while Annabelle is bisexual I’m a lesbian. Never really enjoyed the idea of dating a man and settling down and starting a family. I knew since I was very young, but I kept it quiet until I left St. Trinian’s. At an all girl’s school, girls will get uncomfortable if they know there’s a lesbian in the midst. It’s one of the things that make it vastly different from an all boy’s school.” She shrugged slightly. “I didn’t admit it to Annabelle until she asked me if I fancied her her first day as headmistress. We’ve been together ever since.”

“And your students? Do they care?”

Kelly shook her head. “Not really. When it came out that I was dating Annabelle it was splashed all over the gossip magazines since she used to be a well-known actress. The girls read the stories and they asked if it was true, and we just admitted it. So far only a handful of bigoted parents have taken their girls out, and I honestly feel sorry for all of them.”

Sherlock nodded slowly. “Thank you for answering my question."

"You're welcome," she said with a slight smile. "Would you like me to tell you more about my time as a student now?” 

"Yes," her replied.

“Then let me tell you about the time Mols and I took an unexpected field trip to London to get a certain type of tea for Camilla and how we nearly got caught driving a stolen car…”


End file.
